Petro visits Ciudad Bolívar after death of Donovan Balanta and accuses Public Force
The former president Petro visited the Caracolí neighbourhood in Bogotá, where Donovan Balanta died, and demanded criminal investigation against police officers from Soacha.
Petro in Ciudad Bolívar: "The Public Prosecutor must investigate this murder immediately"
Former president Gustavo Petro travelled to the Caracolí neighbourhood in Ciudad Bolívar, Bogotá, to the exact location where young Donovan Balanta Paz died at the hands of officers from the Soacha Police. According to semana.com, Petro posted a photograph surrounded by young people from the area and described his version of events.
"I am at the point where young Donovan Balanta Paz was murdered by the Soacha police. There are two cameras from the Bogotá Police that should have recorded all the events," wrote the former president.
According to Petro, the incident began with a racist comment made by a Soacha Police officer directed at the wife of the owner of a property in the neighbourhood. According to his account, approximately 20 uniformed officers gathered at the location, hurled insults at neighbours, arrested one young man and forced Donovan Balanta to be dragged up a steep street, applying taser discharges to him during the journey until he died.
"We are faced with a murder by the Public Force and the Public Prosecutor must investigate it immediately," Petro affirmed. The former head of state also noted that 40 young people from the neighbourhood have died at that same location, and that the social programmes that were being implemented in the territory have been suspended.
Before the assembled community, Petro called for a march in Bogotá to demand respect for ethnic minorities and youth in general in the country, directed especially at youth organisations under the name of "great march of blackness".
Source: Google News CO — Bogotá